Corbis
Corbis was a stock photo agency owned by Bill Gates, who also founded Microsoft. During the time it existed Microsoft licensed images from them for use on their operating systems, along with for other software. Their main competitor was Getty Images, who Microsoft also heavily relied on for purchasing stock photos. In 2000, Microsoft purchased all rights to Bliss, then known as Bucolic Green Hills, from Corbis and Charles O'Rear; funnily enough, the image came from Westlight, whom Corbis had bought two years prior to this.
In 2016 Corbis' image licensing business was sold to Unity Glory, an affliate of Getty partner Visual China Group. During this time many, although not all Corbis images, were transferred over to VCG. Getty have been given distribution rights to distribute their images in all countries outside of China. The buyout seemingly resulted in some photos that were used as Windows wallpapers no longer being available, with Purple flower from XP being a prime example.
Products featuring Corbis images
| Product | Edition | Used for | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Plus! 98 | wallpapers, screensaver images | ||
| Windows 2000 | wallpapers (with PhotoDisc and Microsoft) | ||
| Windows Me | wallpapers (with PhotoDisc and Microsoft) | Corbis wallpapers reused from 2000. | |
| Windows XP | All | wallpapers (with Microsoft), sample pictures, user account pictures (with Getty Images) | |
| Media Center Edition | sample pictures | ||
| Starter Edition | wallpapers (with Getty Images), tutorial graphics | ||
| MSN Explorer 7 demo | wallpaper | ||
| Longhorn | Demos | wallpapers (with Corbis and Microsoft) | |
| Windows Vista | wallpapers (with Getty Images and Microsoft), user account pictures | ||
| Windows 7 Beta | wallpapers (with Getty Images and Microsoft) | ||
| Windows 7 | wallpapers (with various other sources), sample pictures (with Microsoft), user account pictures (with Getty Images) | ||
Types of Corbis IDs used in Windows wallpapers
Since Corbis no longer exists, little is currently known about what collections it had, although some collections are known: Spirit, Flirt, Flame (previously Corbis Yellow) and Documentary (the latter of which is now under the Corbis Documentary collection on Getty). Many types of IDs images on the site used are still known.
- [five numbers] e.g 71810, AX[six numbers] e.g AX001448 - used for rights-managed images that came from Westlight
- CB[six numbers] e.g CB040538 - used for royalty free images owned by the company
- [two letters][six numbers] e.g RR009372 - used for images submitted to the company during the 90's and possibly later. The first two letters are usually either the photographer's initials or part of their name
- [three letters][three numbers] e.g NBA076 - used for royalty free images that appear on CDs, the IDs that actually appear on the CDs have an extra 0 between the letters and numbers. The letters represent the CD it came from
- RF[seven numbers] e.g RF5468942 - used for some royalty free images, possibly ones from image100 that were cross-licensed to Corbis
- CSM[six numbers] e.g CSM105571 - unknown, used for some rights-managed images
- [two numbers]-[eight numbers] e.g 42-16419439 - used for both royalty free and rights managed images during the 2000's/2010's